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#Post#: 17829--------------------------------------------------
On Happiness Is A Warm Gun
DIR By: HOLLAND
Date: March 4, 2018, 11:57 am
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Considering the continuing acts of mass murder that have
experienced by many at the hands of young men, it causes me to
wonder about conceptions of masculinity held by many men.
Does manhood exist in the capacity to harm others? Who came up
with this idea? In the Latin, the word for man was vir, the
Latin root of an English word that we know as virility. But it
is much more than that. Vir also is the root for the English
word virtue. Why is the current conception of manhood, on the
part of many men, separated from virtue? Isn't true manhood
meant to be a virtuous man? And doesn't virtue mean empathy,
forbearance, patience, and ultimately gentleness and wisdom?
The great Japanese film producer, Akira Kurosawa, sensed that
violence was damaging to society, in his movie Yojimbo, he
portrays men obsessed with their swords and the violence that
they can do. The chief villain in the film, Ushitora, appears
to have a rare pre-Civil War revolver, an early one that uses
metal cartridges, and when he is mortally wounded wants to die
with it in his hands. To this character, he would feel naked
without it, and he does not want any prayers for him as he lays
dying. To the hero of the movie, Yojimbo, he tells him that he
will wait for him at the gates of hell. The movie scene below
gives a lot to think about. My apologies for how the scene was
titled by FilmStruck . . . :(
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCjsazHO0c0
In the scene death consumes people. It is as if Kurosawa is
seeing that manhood is death. Is this a fair interpretation of
the scene?
The prayer drum, by the way, is not only a summons for other
people to come and pray. It is also a form of prayer for those
whose grief has gone beyond the utterance of words. A prayer
drum in a society indicates a high level of cruelty and grief .
. .
#Post#: 17830--------------------------------------------------
Re: On Happiness Is A Warm Gun
DIR By: paralambano
Date: March 4, 2018, 12:38 pm
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Holland - ^
Ya, I don't know anything about Kurosawa but that he's famous
and considered to be a great Japanese film director since I've
heard his name mentioned with regard to movies. The excerpt of
the movie you gave, however, looks pretty bleak - - that is,
people looking like they might be fighting in and for some kind
of dump (?).
Anyway, you asked about whether the director equated manhood
with death. There aren't any women in the scenes so I suppose
with the fighting and dying in them, men die. I don't know that
they're fighting and dying just for the sake of fighting and
dying, probably for something else. The whole thing seems to be
depressing to me. Women die too fighting for their lives
sometimes. Kurosawa probably knows it too.
Sorry I couldn't be of help.
para . . . .
#Post#: 17838--------------------------------------------------
Re: On Happiness Is A Warm Gun
DIR By: Kerry
Date: March 5, 2018, 5:12 am
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My impression is they're wallowing in outdated stereotypes. I
don't know how seriously to take it. My guess is someone was
trying to portray something accurately and something audiences
would pay to see.
Another film "Sukiyaki Western Django" appears to be half spoof
of American westerns and half something else judging by these
clips:
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZrr-bKVErA
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r99Vx0nU9e4
#Post#: 17849--------------------------------------------------
Re: On Happiness Is A Warm Gun
DIR By: HOLLAND
Date: March 5, 2018, 7:15 pm
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--- Quote from: Kerry link ---
>
> My impression is they're wallowing in outdated stereotypes. I
don't know how seriously to take it. My guess is someone was
trying to portray something accurately and something audiences
would pay to see.
--- End Quote ---
Kerry, the film producer, Akira Kurosawa was deeply influenced
by Shakespeare and the pre-WW2 American Westerns and so his
samurai movies reflect those influences. The movie Yojimbo was
less serious than many of his other pictures but it was, at a
certain level, an oblique criticism of the acceptance of
violence in Japanese society. For Kurowasa, bushido was
ultimately seen as destructive if it didn't include chivalry.
In his very exquisite last film (he wrote the script and his
colleagues produced it) after his death, the film After The Rain
(1999), he has his main character, Ihei Misawa(Akira Teneo),
portray wonderful acts of mercy and charity for others. See the
following scene from that movie:
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5c8EOtRQLE
For Kurosawa, he had the dilemma of portraying a man who
realizes he is ill-fitted for his society since he is not
wanting to be the trained killer that his society and class
wants him to be, but, portraying him in a manner that would be
recognized as plausible in feudal Japan.
--- Quote ---
> Another film "Sukiyaki Western Django" appears to be half
spoof of American westerns and half something else judging by
these clips . . .
>
--- End Quote ---
The clips are clearly satirizing the samurai and Western movies.
But they appear to have been done with satire to an extreme.
The movie appears very strange to me. I would find it difficult
to relate or have sympathy for any of the characters in that
movie.
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